Gasoline and diesel are already being sold en masse for over BGN 2
The rise in the price of motor fuels has been inexorably continuing since the beginning of the year. In the last month alone, regular gasoline has risen in price by nearly 7% and is now difficult to find at a price below BGN 2 per liter, according to data collected by the specialized website Fuelo. The big chains already sell A-95 at an average of BGN 2.03 – 2.07 per liter. Only the smaller players hold the front and offer fuel cheaper. Among them are the sites of the MP businessman Veselin Mareshki, where a liter of mass gasoline costs BGN 1.89. At the same time, many Petrol gas stations have raised the price to a record BGN 2.15 per liter.
The situation with diesel fuel is the same – an increase of almost 7 percent for only a month and prices ranging from 1.82 to 2.15 levs per liter.
The news is not good for drivers who drive cars with gas systems. The average price of propane-butane has risen by more than 9 percent since February 17 to BGN 1.06 per liter (with variations from 0.88 to 1.17 leva per liter).
Only methane is stagnant – from the end of February the average price is BGN 1.34 / kg, but the various gas stations sell in the range from BGN 1.04 to BGN 1.90 per kilogram.
Gasoline, diesel and LPG are on the rise, Fuelo experts predict.
DIRECTIONS
Fuel prices in Bulgaria generally follow the movements on the international markets, where oil prices are still going up. In the previous days, there were hopes that the trend would break, but data on an unexpected decline in US inventories caused a new rise.
Many factors affect the prices of oil and oil products. Investors, for example, expect what instructions for the direction of monetary policy will be given today after its two-day meeting, the US Federal Reserve. Even coronavirus vaccinations are important. Now the delay in immunizations due to doubts about the preparation of AstraZeneca may lead to a new wave of restrictions and reduce demand for fuels, and hence – to lower prices.
FINE AND CASES
The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) has revoked a fine of BGN 175,437 imposed in 2018 by the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) of Tradenet Varna – the company through which Veselin Mareshki develops its VM Petroleum gas station chain, announced Free Europe.
The fine came after Mareshki’s conflict with former Lukoil Bulgaria CEO Valentin Zlatev and other major oil players during the 2017 election campaign. The CPC then launched an investigation into a possible cartel of the big chains due to high prices, and finally punished Mareshki ( on a signal from Lukoil Bulgaria, Synergon Petroleum, Rompetrol Bulgaria, Petrol, NIS Petrol, Eco Bulgaria and OMV Bulgaria), because the gas stations sold it at dumped prices.
According to the three-member panel of the SAC, however, the CPC has not proved that Tradenet Varna traded “significant quantities of goods, for a long period of time, at prices lower than the costs of production and sale, and that the company did so in order to unfair customer acquisition ‘. The court stated that according to the expertise of the case “only in certain months there was a sale below cost. He adds that when a company seeks to establish itself on the market, it is normal in the first months to offer goods or services at a “symbolic or similar price”.
The CPC may appeal this decision and try to defend the fine before a five-member panel of the SAC.
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